Ship advice

[Marc]

So im 6 months in. I have my beautiful navy issue dominix which just tears through level 4s. I am a month away from being able to fly a HAC and a Heavy dicter but im at a loss about what other ships to go for. I want to primaraly be a support player in fleet warfare so can anyone give me a clue to what kind of ships I should go for?

 

[`mongoose]

Hi Marc

(wall of text inc)

As you're currently using a Navy Domi I'm assuming you're gallente based skillwise so I'm going to focus on their ships primarily.

Firstly - before buying anything the question to ask yourself is have you got the necesarry sub skills to get the best from these ships?

Let's start with Engineering and fitting skills. If you haven't got Weapons Upgrades 5, Advanced Weapon upgrades 4, Engineering 5, Electronics 5, Navigation 5, Mechanic 5, Armour repair systems 5 and Jury Rigging 3 with Armor & hybrid rigging skills stop. Get those first.

As a hybrid weapon user you will also benefit from skills like Controlled Bursts, Energy Management and Energy systems operation so consider those. 4 would be a good start to moving to 5 in Energy management and systems operation some way down the line.

Gallente go hand in hand with Drones so have you got good drone skills? Durability 4, navigation 4, interfacing 4, sentry drone interfacing 4, Tech2 Light, Medium and heavy drones?

Finally have you got tech 2 hybrid guns at small, medium and large?

The reason I'm asking all of this is that the prices of tech2 ships are high right now. Frankly, it's crazy for you to be thinking of buying hacs right now when you've little experience of pvp in 0,0 or low sec. You'd be far better off concentrating on getting all your weapon systems to tech2 so you're maximising your damage before leaving tech1 ships behind.

Also most decent pvp corps will require as an absolute minimum for joining that you can fit tech2 to all ships that you can fly. It avoids (hopefully) comedy kill mail losses which most decent pvp corps cannot abide.

My advice would be for you to get yourself tech2 large guns and focus on fitting a solid fleet megathron. You'll need rig skills to get the best out of it and once you start rigging battleships along with fitting tech2 guns you will be amazed at their versatility, affordability and efficacy. I've participated in no end of slaughters of tech2 hac's with a good, well organised and disciplined fleet bs gang.

I know the lure of shiny new toys is hard to resist but I would keep things simple. focus on getting absolutely everything you can out of your tech1 ship fleet. Get those tech2 large guns then I can recommend to you some very very good corps to join who will help you learn the ropes and offer you lots of scope for development.

There are plenty of corps in 0.0 who will let any old rabble in. Don't join them. Look for corps who have strict entry reqs. (T2 ships, t2 large guns etc). They have standards and will teach you how to fly properly in 0.0 and how to survive in fleets/gangs. Other corps will offer you pvp and 0.0 but will probably lack the discipline to offer you successful fights. I realise that sounds a bit elitist but one of the reasons people get frustrated with faction war and that sort of stuff is that it's full of lazy pilots, people who cba and have a go hero fc's. That stuff leads to silly losses and silly losses cost isk and time to replace. I don't mind losing my ship under and fc if we lose a fight . I do mind losing my ship under an fc if we lose a fight because half our fleet are morons and not with us, not listening, not fit right, only fit to salvage our wrecks and steal our loot. The same thing happens in rabble alliances or corps with no entry reqs (at times). it's like the blind leading the blind.

D

 

[`mongoose]

Now the "I don't care what you said, I want tech2 ships godfeckindamnit!" thread

Fleet support usually = scouting / tackling / logistics

This means the following options are available (warning, they're all high risk and expensive).

Scouting/Probing.

Rigged Covert Ops with probe launcher and Cov Ops Cloak II in the highs and then a propulsion unit and warp disruptor in the mids. Then fit whatever else you fancy. That's for scouting and finding safespotted ships. I'd avoid this until you've been playing in 0,0/low sec for a while as it requires practice to get right.

You can fit a probe launcher to any ship so you can probe out in an interdictor but these can't warp cloaked and therefore aren't as effective at surviving as Cov Ops or force recons. Fitted rigged cov ops should set you back in the region of 30-40million isk. Recons will be around 180 ish with rigs and fit.

Tackle can be done by Interceptors and Interdictors / Heavy interdictors. All are risky and all require a bit of practice or you tend to get nailed. You need to be aware that with turret based ships if you fly straight at them and put your mwd on you will probably wake up in a new clone more or less instantly. Always approach to the side of a turret ship not directly at them so your transversal speed makes it hard for the guns to track you. Always orbit as close as you can to amarr ships otherwise you will find yourself melted quickly. Always focus on MWD, POINT before anything else. Your primary job in a interceptors/interdictors is to tackle first. any old weapon can be fitted to whore on the kill mail but only if the enemy ship is well tackled in place.

Taranis is great for intie 1vs1s (Avoid crusaders solo like the plague. They will melt your face)

Ares is a great tackler (fit dual propulsion if you can so you can still get out of dodge even if warp scrambled)

Rigged Inties set you back around 30 mill including the fit. Small rigs are so cheap you should always try and rig your tech 2 ships.

Interdictors/Heavy Interdictors are expensive coffins. They're great because no amount of warp core stabilisers let's you warp in an interdiction bubble but you ARE primary every time. Don't fly them until you have a healthy sum of isk. The gallente interdictor and heavy interdictor are also the worst two :/ Eris/Phobos are both distintcly underwhelming for their price tag. I'd avoid if I were you.

Logistics.

If you want to be beloved of all your corp and fleet mates - fly a logistics. The oneiros is good - unfortunately not as good as the guardian but still a solid performer. If you decide on logistics, get logistics to 4 then remote armor repair systems to 5 then take logistics to 5. Logistics 5 is probably the most impressive ship piloting 5. I've got battlecruiser 5, battleship 5, Heavy assault ship 5, assault ship 5 and cov ops 5. None of them come close to the oomph you get out of logistics 5. A well drilled team of logistics can enable ordinary ships to do extraordinary things. You need a good alliance/corp to allow you to shine tho. So see my point in my previous post about joining a corp with standards.

If you're desperate to fly hacs then the Ishtar is pretty pwn. You can fit a flight of heavy drones or sentry drones in the drone bay and it kicks arse for plexing or pvping with the right skill set. The Gallente hacs are both skill intensive though, so make sure you can fit tech2 weapons to them before buying/training the skills.

GL HF whichever you decide.

D

 

[Marc]

You underestimate me mate!! I have pretty much all the skills you mentioned in your first post which is why im now looking at Tech 2 ships, because I can almost fit them out perfectly Only thing im lacking at the moment is tech 2 large blasters, but most of the HAC fits ive seen use Tech2 medium which I can use. My drone skills are top notch too, can fly all tech 2's.

The corp im in is in an indy alliance. I have no intention of getting into 0.0 space for a long time as im enjoying the War's we fight with out indy alliances.

Just another question, while you mentioned drones, can yo give me a summary of what each ecm drone does please, ie tracking, painting etc> what do these mean?

 

[Marc]

Ok,maybe I wont train for my heavy dicter lol

 

[`mongoose]

You underestimate me mate!! I have pretty much all the skills you mentioned in your first post which is why im now looking at Tech 2 ships, because I can almost fit them out perfectly Only thing im lacking at the moment is tech 2 large blasters, but most of the HAC fits ive seen use Tech2 medium which I can use. My drone skills are top notch too, can fly all tech 2's.

The corp im in is in an indy alliance. I have no intention of getting into 0.0 space for a long time as im enjoying the War's we fight with out indy alliances.

Just another question, while you mentioned drones, can yo give me a summary of what each ecm drone does please, ie tracking, painting etc> what do these mean?

It was the "6month in" thing that through me

having the skills already is good news then you've got lots you can play with. Have you done much wormhole greifing? Scanning out tasty wormholes in high sec that are packed full of carebears in easily gankable ships is alot of fun.

There's a great probing video here for the current mechanics:
YouTube - Eve Online Apocrypha - Ship Probing Tutorial (With narration)

It's also a source of excellent income for your more industrially minded colleagues and easily soloed plexes for yourself.

Have you considered T3? If you have the support skills - A tech3 Proteus could make a lovely pwnmobile and would be great fun to go solo probing/ganking with.

Otherwise the lachesis could be alot of fun for you.

My take on Gallente Tech2 Ships is as follows:

Cov Ops
helios - suprisingly effective fit with a light ecm drone and some blasters - can win most 1vs1 as it permajams the opposition whilst you slowly kill them with the blasters

Stealth bomber - it's a stealth bomber. it's horribly overpowered in wolfpacks but paper thin . A source of cheap disposable fun, however and more than one battleship pilot has learnt to their cost just how hard they can hit.

interceptors - Taranis (probably the second best inti for solo 1vs1 fights, blaster fit with plates, just watch out for Crusaders, they're horrible)

Assault Frigates -

Both good - AF's are underpowered atm tho. Wait for the proposed afterburner bonus.

Interdictors - horrid but cheap compared to other races. Useless for small gang stuff however so avoid for now.

Heavy Interdictor - Underwhelming but good for it's primary purpose. Useless in empire imo unless you're a piwate!

HACS -

Deimos = one shot wonder. You'll either melt face or be kited/sucked dry of cap and annhilated

Ishtar - pwnmobile. Can passive tank 8/10 plexes in bear mode. With good drones it's a god in pvp too, probably one of the best hacs around and the best hac for solo roaming/nano roaming.

Command Ships

Astarte/eos. Slow. Fat. If they catch you, you're fucked. If they can't catch you they probably still have the EHP and tank to deaggress and get out. A solid investment but don't forget the gang skills to go with them.

T3: proteus - a bit like a tech3 deimos. Only it can have the ability to cloak and run as a hard hitting recon.

I'd investigate recons if you like cloaky probe stuff and if not the ishtar / command ships are probably good places to think about invesitng your iskies.

Most of the EWAR drones are horribly broken btw. Only the ecm drones work well, unfortunately. Having said that, a full flight ecm drones + lock time increase on the rsd on the lachesis can give someone a really bad day

D

 

[Marc]

Thanks for the info dude! Ive decided to concentrate on my HAC first and foremost then go for a proteus

 

[Marc]

Ok, so ive played around with a few Ishtar fittings, but capacitor is like, one minute on all of them? WHat do I do with that?? Thats not enough surely!